Xfire 5970 running at X1 PCIE

[mcfart]

So my 5970 was running fine, then about a month ago everything started running slower (namely BF4, but everything was affected). I checked CCC, and it stated that Crossfire was disabled. I checked GPUz etc, so I uninstalled and installed newest 14.4 drivers.

I got Xfire working again (though only under 13.9/14.4/14.6), but in 13.9, the PCIE frequency is x1/x1, and under 14.4/14.6, it's x4 (master) and x8 (slave).

Under Xfire everything has massive stuttering and frame drops Dota 2, a game that worked flawlessly under Xfire now chugs while using Xfire....but runs fine when I disable Xfire under specific application settings in CCC. Other games like BF4 run horribly either way because one GPU isn't enough, and it lags while using Xfire.

The only problem I noticed is that GPUz states that my lanes are PCIe_16 2.0 X4 for first GPU and X8 for 2nd GPU under 14.4. I don't know what my GPUz was before the problems started showing up, but I'm wondering if the X4 for first and X8 for the second GPU is bottlenecking my 5970?
Here's my GPUz screenshots and 3dmark 11 results:
GPU1:http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/14/07/02/d8d.png
GPU2: http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/14/07/02/fqv.png

3dmark11 results: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8457708

Also I got 3350 points with Furmark's 1080p benchmark.

BTW I tried removing the GPU and reinserting it into the slot (2.0 x16 slot), and also tried putting it into another PCIe slot. The results were still x4/x8 in both cases. ALso checked my mobo settings to see if anything was up...but couldn't find anything (mobo is ASUS p8z68-v-pro)

Specs:
P8z68-v-pro
8GB RAM
Diamond 5970 (reference, they didn't modify anything)


I don't know anyone with a big enough case/PSU to fit a 5970, so unfortuntly haven't been able to try it in a different computer .

 

[john3850]

Try using the render test on cpuz to read the Pci-e lanes correctly.
My 5970 stopped working in my I7 3770k after I ran a intel 3370 iGPU on a seperate monitor.
Got no results by trying my 5970 on a i5-2500 X68 system.
When I put that 5970 card in a i7-930 @ 4200mhz it worked great.
Put it back in a 2500k and a 3370k no boot strange.
I believe the onboard Plx chip just doesnt like the pci-e lanes on the newer chips.
It took four months and 24 emails plus two calls to diamond before they sent me a new 7970.
The 7970 is better in most games except the 5970 was better at sceen capture in a game do to twin chips.

 

[BrightCandle]

One other possibility is that this card in programs like GPU-Z shows 1x when its saving power. If you run a game in windowed mode for example you may find the number changes to the actual value its meant to be. This did catch me out the first time until I dragged a windows around the screen and saw the card wake up (eyefinity it hurts GPUs in Windows!).

 

[n0x1ous]

there's even a little button to click in gpuz next the pcie field that will run a little renderer to make the card power up and show the true lane allocation.

 

[blackened23]

Silly question, but have you tried system restore? What I would do is run system restore and try to find one of the backups from a month ago from when you knew everything was working. Sounds like Windows, drivers, or the registry went caput on you. Sometimes you can fix it, sometimes not. Or it could be malicious software doing weird things. It happens sometimes.

On that note, make sure you have no malicious software going on. And then, having automatic backups or system restore really is a great thing, I use it quite a bit to revert my system back to a good install when I need to. So after doing a cleanup try to revert back to an older date.

Windows 7/8 generally both do automated restores anytime you do anything major (install anything or insert/remove hardware) so i'd give that a shot first. If you're lucky you'll have an option to restore to a date that you know was working.

 

[mcfart]

there's even a little button to click in gpuz next the pcie field that will run a little renderer to make the card power up and show the true lane allocation.

Yes I did the render test for 10m...and ran BF4 in windowed. No change.


Also I said on the 14.4 drivers, the lanes are x4/x8. Also I ran linux off a USB key, and that showed x4/x8. However, it should be x8/x8 shoulden't it, especially since all the other PCIE slots are unoccupied.


I still get the massive stuttering when any action's going on (such as spells being shot in DOTA 2, flashbangs going off even if I'm not hit by them in CS GO, several players on screen at once in CS GO, turning the camera around in Skyrim if the GPU has to load new graphical data makes it freeze for several seconds, BF4 runs at ~15fps on lowest then lowers to 5 when i move camera) etc.

In DOTA 2 in particular, if I disable Crossfire, then it's smooth...but if Crossfire's enabled, it lags like balls if anything happens. Except BF4, which runs like shit even on lowest.

 

[notty22]

It's not like warming the card up in render test, will help show true reading, it's a setting that will change in micro-seconds to save energy. You need to run the windowed render test while checking the lanes simultaneously. As soon as the render test stops, the lanes can change to lower Xx .

 

[john3850]

Have Gpuz running while gaming in full screen then press print screen when you stop the game your correct info will be on Gpuz.

 

[mcfart]

It's not like warming the card up in render test, will help show true reading, it's a setting that will change in micro-seconds to save energy. You need to run the windowed render test while checking the lanes simultaneously. As soon as the render test stops, the lanes can change to lower Xx .

You know that the full-screen Render Test shows the PCIe lane frequency, right?


Because I don't think you do. Why run it in Windowed if full-screen shows the info realtime? Why even bother answering if you never used GPU-Z?


Also I tried both. Are you doubting GPU-Z's render test in using the GPU enough to remove power-saving PCIe frequencies? Once again, answers like these are why computer repair specialists are still in business. Because people on the Internet somehow sound like cavemen that never used a PC or understand English.